The Dallas school district recently opened two new high school drop-in centers to help students in need, including homeless kids. The district has partnered with a non-profit group to help remove the stigma from kids afraid to say they’re homeless. The newest center’s in Madison High near Fair Park.

It’s just before 8 am in a large room in Madison High. School’s still an hour away, but in here there are donuts, candy energy bars, school uniforms. A local musician named Cowboy Bob plays music to give this place coffee-house feel. This is the district’s newest drop in center. DISD Urban Specialist Kim Toynes says it’s an attempt to lighten things up for those stressed by challenges like homelessness.

“If a student is coming from a shelter in the morning and they get here to the school, that cafeteria is just more of another institutional type place,” Toynes says. “When they come in here it’s an opportunity to sit around comfortably, get relaxed, it’s somebody actually showing that they care about how their day gets started.”

Toynes estimates Madison has a dozen or more homeless kids. There are at least 3,400 in the district. That doesn’t always mean they’re sleeping in a car or under a bridge. Officially, they may not be living with parents. Maybe they’re sofa-surfing with friends, or staying with a relative for a week – or a month.

The district is counting on student volunteers to spread the word about the drop-in center and to get kids comfortable in visiting. Toynes recruited senior Eboni Lloyd to help the effort.

“We come and we like sit and talk to the student and if we know a student that needs something, we direct them here,” Eboni says.

Serita Johnson came in Monday morning to check out the center just because she was curious.

“When Eboni told me about it, she summed it up. She was like if you ever need anything, if you ever just want to know something, if you’re just confused about something, you can just come up here and they can help you with what you need. I was like, what are you talking about? And she was like home, school, like they can help you with everything you need. I was like ok,” Serita said.

Keith Price is here to help. Executive Director of the non-profit Focus on
Teens, he was at Madison Monday, and works with the district at these drop-in centers. His group focuses on those who may have drug or suicide problems, or need a place to live.

“We open up our drop-in center between 7:30 and 8:00,” Price explains. “Our thinking is that anybody that comes to our drop-in center early, generally it’s not because the bus is early. Something’s going on and that’s ok. So we welcome them.”

Drop-in centers help draw out homeless kids too embarrassed to admit it. Price says they shouldn’t be ashamed, but admired, because they’re still in school.

“That is a major step. They have their toe in the water. I’m not working with a youngster not in school, I would do it, but I’m working with a kid that’s in school. And if they show that kind of moxie, you can build on it. You can build on that foundation cause that’s huge. Cause their alternative is to be gone,” Price says.

Another drop-in center is scheduled to open next week at Samuell High in South Dallas.

]]>http://education.kera.org/center-opens-to-help-homeless-students-at-dallas-madison-high/feed/0‘Generation One': How One School District Responds To Dramatic Demographic Changeshttp://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/generation-one-how-one-school-district-responds-to-dramatic-demographic-changes/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/generation-one-how-one-school-district-responds-to-dramatic-demographic-changes/#commentsTue, 18 Nov 2014 18:21:51 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7261Immigration is transforming the Grapevine-Colleyville school district near Fort Worth. In the last decade, it has seen its overall student population shrink while the number of non-white students doubled.It’s the latest story in a KERA American Graduate series called Generation One.

One in three Texas kids is either an immigrant or the child of immigrants. Over the next several weeks, KERA will explore the challenges these kids face and the ways North Texas schools are trying to weave them into the American tapestry.

These kids have to learn a new language, adapt to a different culture and try to fit into a community that may not embrace newcomers.

In recent years, the number of students learning English — they’re called English language learners — has climbed 60 percent.

The district partnered with the police department to create the Grapevine Community Outreach Center. And the district launched the Language Assessment Center over the summer. Kids who aren’t native English speakers get tested at the center and are then placed in the right language program.

Of the students learning English in Grapevine-Colleyville, most speak Spanish. But kids also speak Korean, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Ukrainian.

The first story features David Kapuku. Just two weeks after arriving from Africa, David enrolled at Conrad High School in Northeast Dallas. He started school in a new country where students speak a different language. It can be overwhelming. Now, a year and a half later, David is helping other refugee kids making the transition.

]]>http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/generation-one-how-one-school-district-responds-to-dramatic-demographic-changes/feed/0Teens Get An Earful During Interviews With Mom And Dadhttp://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/teens-get-an-earful-during-interviews-with-mom-and-dad/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/teens-get-an-earful-during-interviews-with-mom-and-dad/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 23:11:33 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7212A few students at Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth and at Dubiski Career High in Grand Prairie had their own version of the StoryCorps oral history project. They were assigned to interview a family member. The students learned more than they expected when they pressed “record.”

Sidney Lainez interviewed his mom, Stella, about growing up in Columbia and immigrating to New York City when she was 10. Sidney is a senior at Dubiski, studying audio visual production.

One of his first questions to her was what gave her the idea to name him Sidney.

“It came to me one morning,” she said with confidence. Boy or girl, Stella knew she’d call her child Sidney.

“So you admit it’s a girl’s name,” Sidney said.

“No,” Stella said. It’s universal, like Ashley or Leslie.

Sidney didn’t buy it. “I’ve never known a man Leslie,” he said quietly.

Moesha Taylor interviewed her mom, Mildred. One of her first questions was an existential teenager drama: Did you want to have kids?

“I didn’t plan to have my kids,” her mom confessed. ”But I’m glad I did.” Her mom told her about how much she loved Moesha and her siblings, and how the hardest thing that she’d ever endured was losing a baby.

The conversation also wandered into less sober matters.

Asked what foods she likes to eat, Mildred confessed that she liked to eat everything. ”I’m a fat woman!” she said.

Moesha hoped this was a good time to slip in a question about her own future. “Can I get a tattoo when I turn 18?” she asked.

“No you may not. After you’re out of my house, living on your own, that would be fine.”

That was the final word on that subject.

When senior Ashley Black asked her dad Vincent about his memories of growing up, he said his childhood had been great. But there were dark spots.

“I wish I’d had my mother and father when I was growing up,” he said. “My kids have a mother and father and they can talk about things that I didn’t have the opportunity to talk about when I was growing up.”

Ashley also asked her dad if he would do anything differently, given the chance.

“I would have went to college,” he said. ”I would have a whole lot different lifestyle than what I have today,” he said.

Some of the students conducted their interviews in Spanish, in the hopes of getting their parents to open up in the way that was most comfortable to them.

]]>http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/teens-get-an-earful-during-interviews-with-mom-and-dad/feed/0So This Is My Lifehttp://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/so-this-is-my-life/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/so-this-is-my-life/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 21:29:08 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7245Read more »]]>Bianca Mujica is one of the Latina students KERA met last week during the National Hispanic Institute’s annual meeting in Dallas for the first time. She wants to be a writer of both fiction and non fiction.

So this is my life. And I want you to know that it is both happy and sad.

I’m still trying to figure out how that could be, might I add.

It’s not as easy as it looks, to put this smile on my face.

But I get so used to it, that the tears don’t leave a trace.

I’m supposed to be the rock – the one that never cries.

But really, my happiness is just a disguise.

Sometimes I try to let it out, but only when no one’s around.

I realize I hold it in for too long, so I end up breaking down.

I think I’m depressed – I know it’s hard to believe.

You would think I was joking if I told you I want to leave.

I no longer have the strength to do the things I once did.

More and more I find myself wishing I could still be a kid.

Without a care in the world is the act I put on.

And for a second all my problems seem to have gone.

Everyone thinks I’m this innocent little girl;

They try so hard to protect me, as if I’m a pearl.

They think I don’t know, they think I’m so lost.

I just go along with it, but for a cost.

Sometimes it feels like they don’t know the real me,

I just don’t know how I could possibly make them see.

I only act this way in attempt to forget my past…

If only I could find a way to make the innocence last.

My parents have no idea what’s going on in my life.

Then again, it’s hard to be husband and wife.

They’re always fighting, they never can agree.

I might as well be living in the middle of World War III.

I know they wonder, and I know they care.

But I wouldn’t think of telling them – I wouldn’t dare.

They work all the time, and they work extremely hard.

For them I act strong, and never let down my guard.

My sister is so oblivious; we try to salvage her mind.

But sometimes I wonder if she pretends to be this blind.

I have to protect her; I’m expected to be her second mom.

Which only causes fighting, and it’s hard to remain calm.

She thinks I absolutely hate her, which couldn’t be a bigger lie.

I just don’t know how to say I love her, no matter how hard I try.

She’s actually very sad; like her big sister she fakes the smile.

She’s only ten years old, yet she doesn’t think life is worthwhile.

I look around me and know I’ll never be good enough.

Feeling like that all day, makes going on really tough.

I look in the mirror, and can’t help but hate what’s there.

Am I the only one who thinks like that? Because it doesn’t seem fair.

Why can’t I be taller? Or skinny or pretty?

I see nothing but the bad in myself, and it fills me with pity.

Maybe if I was beautiful, and finally felt thin,

My life would be different than how it has been.

Often I feel that no one loves or even knows me, for who I really am.

He’s the one to blame – I should’ve known all along he had a plan.

He used me, my ignorance, and all I didn’t know

to his advantage. So when I called him out on his lies, he made a big show.

He demanded to know why I didn’t trust him; making it seem like it was my fault.

And stupidly, I believed him – which became the default.

What I’m left with are memories. Only the ones that taunt me.

I constantly wish to take everything back; just the thought of it is haunting.

There’s a lot that I risked for him, including my parents’ trust.

And if I ever told them, they’d be filled with disgust.

What I hate most of all is that my efforts went to waste.

My dreams ran away; so I gave up on the chase.

We fell out of love, now I feel so alone.

Sometimes I feel the solitude seeping through my bones.

While everyone else has fun, and makes all their plans,

I remember the amount of friends I have can fit on my hands.

I don’t like to talk to anyone about anything at all,

Yet I know that’s just setting myself up to fall.

I know there’s people that care; they try to get me to talk.

But it’s just too hard for me, so I continue to walk.

If I tell them what’s going on, it would scare them away.

So I take it slow, I take it day by day.

Then I sit back and wonder, ‘Are these problems even real?’

You’d think that would make it easier – but now it’s harder to heal.

I guess I’m a fake who doesn’t know right from wrong.

And all this time I believed that for once, maybe I could be strong.

I don’t know how much more I can take, how much farther I can go.

Because of this uncertainty, I want you to know:

The smile has always been fake; my eyes are filled with pain.

When someone finally noticed, they just called me insane.

I’ve wanted you to know, I would’ve told you sooner.

But I didn’t know how to bring it up, so I hid it in my humor.

I don’t have a reason to feel this way; there’s people who have it worse.

Yet I’m still convinced I’ll always be stuck with this curse.

Strangely, I’m proud to say that this is the real me.

I’m sure we’ve all had these moments – wouldn’t you agree?

I feel a tiny bit better, like a weight has been lifted off my heart.

I’m having a hard time accepting myself – but hey, it’s a start.

I’m trying my best to move on, but it’s harder than I thought,

In this ongoing battle, that I’ve fought and I’ve fought.

I’ve lost and I’ve won, but it’s all in my head.

The war never ends, as I lie awake in my bed.

I skip meals and lose sleep; I stay awake just to cry.

By the time I wake up in the morning, my pillow has already dried.

No one can imagine the amount of tears that I’ve shed.

No one will ever hear the things I’ve left unsaid.

Do you ever have those messages where you never click send?

Afraid of them knowing the real you, even though they’re a friend?

That’s what my life is like, all day all the time.

I write words all over papers, I hide my feelings in these rhymes.

If you’re reading this that must mean…

That I trust you to know the things I have seen.

And if you’ve ever felt the way I do, maybe you do right now,

Don’t worry – it will get better somehow.

One last thing, that I want you to always know…

No matter who you are or what you do, or even where you go…

Love and happiness awaits you; you’ll find your way to cope.

Please, never give up, because you still have a little something called hope.

]]>http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/so-this-is-my-life/feed/0Hundreds Of Latino Teens In Dallas To Learn Leadership Skillshttp://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/hundreds-of-latino-teens-in-dallas-to-learn-leadership-skills/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/hundreds-of-latino-teens-in-dallas-to-learn-leadership-skills/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 21:07:53 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7233More than 600 Latino high school students from North and Central America are in Dallas for the annual meeting of the National Hispanic Institute. The organization was created to foster future Hispanic leaders, like A.C. Gonazlez, the Dallas city manager and an Institute alum. Meet some of the next generation.

These kids are the cream of this organization’s crop, culled from 3,000 students who attended summer National Hispanic Institute programs in South Texas. Here, they’ll debate and hold mock trials.

Bianca Mujica from McAllen heard about the institute from her cousin.

“He recruited me. He said you’re going to go this thing. So I kind of had no choice,” Bianca said. “And I almost dropped out about halfway through it because I didn’t like the people I was with.”

But then Bianca started competing and fell in love with the organization.

“It’s so different from school,” Bianca says. “There’s not a set structure. People tell you OK do this, but they don’t tell you how to do it. So you have to figure it out on your own. And I like that. I feel like I’m an independent person, so being given the freedom to do things the way I want to do them was liberating.”

More than 90 percent of the students involved with the National Hispanic Institute will not only attend college, but graduate. Alejandro Vohorquez, a 16-year-old junior from Mexico wants to study psychology. He remembers a past Institute exercise on the psychology of prejudice.

“Let’s say you have some sort of accounting issue,” Alejandro says. “You have an Asian, a Latino and an African-American.”

No, that’s not a setup for a joke. Alejandro says most kids decided the Asian was the one likely to tackle the accounting problem. Then they were asked who would fix a plumbing leak. Most kids picked the Latino.

“There’s this stereotypical image of Latinos as laborers,” Alejandro says. “They’re not entrepreneurs. They’re not visionaries, which is completely the opposite. That’s not the case.”

These 600 teenage visionaries are meeting in the Dallas Convention Center and Omni Hotel until Sunday.

]]>http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/hundreds-of-latino-teens-in-dallas-to-learn-leadership-skills/feed/0English Classes For Adults About To Change In Texashttp://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/english-classes-for-adults-about-to-change-in-texas/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/english-classes-for-adults-about-to-change-in-texas/#commentsWed, 12 Nov 2014 15:48:36 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7205For four decades most adults wanting to learn to English have turned to Texas public schools. That will change next summer, causing immediate confusion and concern for some, while others welcome the shift.

Outside what used to be Fannin Elementary School in Dallas, it’s a rainy, fall afternoon. Inside, adult education teacher Jorge Saucedo runs through a lesson about weather with his Spanish speaking students. They’re enrolled in the free ESL class, English as a Second Language. Saucedo wonders if he and seven other teachers will still be here or even have jobs a year from now.

“Of course any time there’s change,” explains Saucedo, “you’re going to feel a little concerned. But of course there’s always concern on my part – yes – and some of the other teachers.”

A year and a half ago, state lawmakers shifted 73 million adult education dollars from the Texas Education Agency, where it had been for 40 years, to the Texas Workforce Commission. To Laurie Laurrea, that made sense. She runs Workforce Solutions of Dallas, a jobs and education program.

“It was a realization that perhaps the TEA was a misplacement of the money. People are saying was it really education money or was it workforce money?” Laurrea asks.

With ESL funded through the education agency, Laurrea says many adults never learned they could take English classes unless they had a child in school.

“Our focus is going to be ESL in the work force and there is a huge number of people who suffer low pay, stagnant job because they can’t get their language skills up particularly in their own industry,” Laurrea says.

Laurrea adds that thanks to an agreement between the Workforce Commission and Dallas schools, teachers and classes will stay in place for the next seven months. But after that it’s unclear where 2,000 adults in Dallas ESL classes will go. Marina Baldez is one of them.

“I don’t have a job,” Baldez says. “I am a nurse in Mexico but here I need English.”

Taking classes at Fannin is manageable for the 30 year-old nurse, who’s lived in Dallas for two years.

“Here is good for me,” Baldez explains, “because I don’t have a car and I come to the school by walking.”

What would happen if ESL classes are no longer taught here?

Baldez answers, “Maybe I can’t go.”

Another big question? Must students show a social security card or legal documentation, which the Workforce Commission requires? Dallas City Councilman Adam Medrano (who used to be on the school board), says that rumor’s making the rounds among ESL students. Many of them lack documentation.

“To me that’s not good for us because all of our students, I don’t know what percentage, probably do not have a Social (Security card).”

Laurrea says funding will continue to pay for some adult learners with or without documentation. But details on getting that word out, on whether classes will move, or who will teach and for what pay, all remain unanswered.

]]>http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/english-classes-for-adults-about-to-change-in-texas/feed/0How Does Texas Stack Up To Other Pre-K Programs?http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/how-does-texas-stack-up-to-other-pre-k-programs/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/how-does-texas-stack-up-to-other-pre-k-programs/#commentsWed, 12 Nov 2014 05:28:48 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7215A new report says Texas faces real obstacles to improve pre-kindergarten education, despite noteworthy efforts in Fort Worth and San Antonio. As part of KERA’s American Graduate Project, one of the study’s lead authors talks about what’s needed.

“We’ve given kids access to pre-k,” Pianta said. “But the question is — is there sufficient dosage to actually matter? It’s not dosage to anything. It has to be dosage to something that really is sufficiently, educationally intensive to move the needle for kids that are coming from struggling backgrounds.”

Pianta’s prescription for improved Texas pre-k? A higher dose of standards and dollars in eight different nationally recognized categories, where he says Texas doesn’t measure up. He’d start with better trained teachers in front of 4-year-olds.

“I think about it as strategic opportunism,” Pianta says with a chuckle. “You have to be able to read kids’ reactions on the fly and know where to take them next. That’s what we mean by quality teacher/child interactions. We can measure those actually in ways that are quite standardized.”

John Breitfeller knows about qualified pre-k teachers. He runs the non-profit Educational First Steps, which trains teachers in best practices for early childhood education. Standing in the back of a pre-k class, he says there’s one way to make a real difference in children’s lives.

“You surround them with adults who know what they’re doing,” Breitfeller says. “And so many times we invest in a snappier playground or a better piece of material and we fail to realize the thing they need are the adults who know what they’re doing.”

Pianta’s 19-page report also stresses the value of full-day pre-k. But Texas only pays for half a day. He says that comes with a price.

“On most of the kinds of tests we give, the achievement gap between poor kids and non-poor kids is about 15 points,” Pianta explains. “Most well-run pre-k programs of the sort that have been around and evaluated can help close that gap by half, by the time kids reach third grade.”

Third grade matters. Research shows students not reading well by then are four times less likely to graduate high school by the time they’re 19. Pianta says Texas also has problems with pre-k curriculum standards and student teacher ratios. Both elements, he says, can stimulate creativity if done well. At Little Rascal’s pre-k in West Dallas, school seems to be fun.

“Sometimes those opportunities happen in a play situation, sometimes they happen outside at recess, sometimes around a set of blocks and Legos,” Pianta says. “And sometimes they happen in somewhat structured activities that are book reading or literary-focused or math-focused.”

When it comes to Texas, Pianta says that’s not all the state could do to improve its pre-k. He says the state should use data to measure and drive pre-k instruction, but it doesn’t now.

Finally, he says the state could use a dose of political leadership. It cut pre-k funding more than three years ago, and he says it hasn’t focused on quality or increased funding in recent years.

]]>http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/how-does-texas-stack-up-to-other-pre-k-programs/feed/0First-Generation Texans Navigate A New World In KERA ‘Generation One’ Serieshttp://education.kera.org/first-generation-texans-navigate-a-new-world-in-kera-generation-one-series/
http://education.kera.org/first-generation-texans-navigate-a-new-world-in-kera-generation-one-series/#commentsTue, 11 Nov 2014 15:08:10 +0000http://education.kera.org/?p=7191Read more »]]>One in three Texas kids is either an immigrant or the child of immigrants. They’re the subject of a new KERA series called Generation One.

Mark Birnbaum

David Kapuku on his way to school in Northeast Dallas.

Starting Tuesday, and over the next several weeks, KERA will explore the challenges these kids face and the ways North Texas schools are trying to weave them into the American tapestry.

These kids have to learn a new language, adapt to a different culture and try to fit into a community that may not embrace newcomers.

The first story features David Kapuku. Just two weeks after arriving from Africa, David enrolled at Conrad High School in Northeast Dallas. He started school in a new country where students speak a different language. It can be overwhelming. Now, a year and a half later, David is helping other refugee kids making the transition.

Each Tuesday, stories will air on KERA 90.1 FM. Explore the stories in KERA’s digital storytelling project, which features videos and an interactive graphic showing where Texas’ foreign-born population comes from.

]]>http://education.kera.org/first-generation-texans-navigate-a-new-world-in-kera-generation-one-series/feed/0Students See Bullying As Part Of Life, Like It Or Nothttp://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/students-see-bullying-as-part-of-life-like-it-or-not/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/students-see-bullying-as-part-of-life-like-it-or-not/#commentsThu, 06 Nov 2014 23:59:07 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7176Texas schools are required by law to protect students from bullying, ever since the Texas Legislature passed a bullying and cyber-bullying bill in 2011. As part of the KERA Yearbook project, here are three stories about bullying from three high school students who have experienced it.

For a recent essay assignment, Meosha Farris stood in front of her class and asked for a little tolerance from those obsessed with sin and punishment.

“I would like people to stop picking out homosexuality as being the number one sin,” she wrote.

As Meosha progressed through elementary and middle school, she became more interested in dressing like a boy. Now a senior at Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth, she is quick to tell people that she’s gay. In a religious community, she feels judged. But she’s not the type to take this bullying quietly.

LGBTQ students have been historically a target for bullies, and Polytechnic has clubs and resources to help them. Messages against bullying are often read over the school’s loud speaker—a reflection of the alarm that many educators feel since some high-profile suicides of bullied gay kids.

Schools Safer Than Home?

Another senior at Polytechnic shied away from the bullying label, even when hearing what most people would think of as hate speech. “I’ve never really got bullied in my life. Some people get offended when they’re called a f—-t, but I don’t let it phase me. I just keep going,” he said.

We’re not sharing his name, because he says he hasn’t told his father that he’s gay. He fears that his father will get angry.

“He asked me if I was gay, and I told him no. But he should know, though. By the way I act and talk and socialize with other people,” he said.

Vicious Taunts From Little Kids

Margaret Guitierrez says she faced constant, brutal teasing when she was younger for being chubby. Her teachers stayed out of it, until she fought back after a kid insulted her dad.

“At the time he had been taken into jail, And so whenever they were picking on me they brought that up,” she said.

She felt like she couldn’t stand it.

“I swung. And he had to get five stitches in his eyebrow.”

The school asked Margaret to write an apology letter.

Margaret says the bullying eventually stopped. “By the time I got to eighth grade, people were growing up, and realizing that it was wrong,” she said.

Margaret, now a senior at Dubiski Career High school in Grand Prairie, is proud of surviving childhood bullying. She recently ran into the boy she’d fought with and sent to the emergency room.

“He came and apologized to me,” she said. “It was a little late, but it was still nice that he did.”

]]>http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/students-see-bullying-as-part-of-life-like-it-or-not/feed/0Students Feel Cheated Out Of State Money For Educationhttp://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/students-feel-cheated-out-of-state-money-for-education/
http://education.kera.org/npr_pull_post_type/students-feel-cheated-out-of-state-money-for-education/#commentsThu, 23 Oct 2014 20:31:22 +0000http://education.kera.org/?post_type=npr_pull_post_type&p=7120Spending on education is one of the biggest policy issues in the Texas governor’s race. We showed the Sept. 30 KERA debate to students at two different high schools in North Texas. When education spending came up, there were some strong reactions.

Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis offered different plans for funding Texas schools during the debate.

State Senator Davis wants Texas to spend more money on education. “My plan calls for investing and making sure that every 4-year-old in this state has access to quality full day pre-K, that we pay our teachers more in line with the national average,” she said.

Attorney General Abbott wants to give the districts more control over their spending. “Before we talk about the dollar amount, we need to talk about what we are providing for the students in the classroom,” he said.

Many students were bothered to hear that Texas spends thousands less per student than most other states. “We walk in to a bathroom of four stalls, and only two have working locks,” said Rebecca Trissell, a senior at Aubrey High School in rural Denton County.

“They can’t even afford to put locks on the doors, but they can afford to re-turf the football field?”

Criticizing the athletics department might seem like a cheap shot, but she wasn’t the only one concerned about how money was allocated when it comes to the football team versus bathrooms.

“There’s holes in the walls. When there’s a hole in the wall people play with it and make it bigger. If you filled it up, people would stop making holes,” said sophomore Sean Collins. And he wasn’t finished.

“The instruments in the band, the slides don’t even move. So it makes us sound worse.”

Aubrey High School is actually a beautiful campus with modern facilities–but griping about school is the teenager’s birthright.

At Polytechnic High School in Ft. Worth, the students didn’t see the football team as taking money from academics, but felt a sense of scarcity in ALL areas of their educational environment.

“We get the same books every single year. And half of them don’t even have the pages in them,” said senior Ashley Black. She said she’s heard teachers make bitter comments about this while trying to teach—“like, ‘turn to page 84, if your book even has a page 84.’”

Aubrey and polytechnic schools couldn’t be more different demographically. Aubrey students are mostly white, and above the state’s average for college readiness. Poly is in a poor, minority neighborhood, and the students test below average for college readiness.

The students at Poly were much more concerned, for example, about pre-K programs.

“My baby brother didn’t get to go to Pre-Kinder, b/c there were so many kids trying to get in. Now he’s behind,” said Keyonna Benson, a sophomore. Some of the students here have to babysit nieces, nephews or younger siblings for hours every day. Full-day pre-k helps the high schoolers as well as the little ones.

Students at both schools hoped that the state could pay their teachers better salaries.

“I agree with Wendy, I think teachers deserve a little change. It’s hard –what they’re doing is hard, and I do think what they’re doing is beneficial,” said Poly sophomore Joseph Aguwa.

The National Center for Education Statistics says the average teacher salary in the U.S. is around $56,000, but only $48,000 in Texas.

Katelyn Brewer, a senior at Aubrey, wants that gap closed.

“As a student, I love when I can see a teacher who is enthusiastic, and believes in what they’re teaching,” she said. But with tight budgets and poor pay for teachers, Katelyn said the quality of classroom instruction can get brushed aside. She lamented the times she’s been taught by “a coach who sits at a desk and says, ‘read the chapter, here’s your test.’”

Even with a wide variety of opinions from the students at the two high schools, there was unanimous agreement on one thing: everyone wants different food in the school cafeteria.